Until the Very End
by echidna79
Summary: After being betrayed by a close friend, Ash runs away to train his Pokemon. Six years later, he is invited to partake in a tournament for the best of the best, determined to prove this friend wrong. How will his friends feel about him returning? What about his crush? Amourshipping, my take on the popular Ash is betrayed story. Rated T for violence.


**Hello! I'm Echidna79, this is my first story and I don't really know how to do this talking to the readers thing! Serena will be in the next chapter, don't worry, and Charizard will too, I promise! Just trust me and give any criticism you have in the reviews, please! I'm probably working on another chapter as you're reading this so stay tuned!**

Sixteen-year-old Ash Ketchum lay in his sleeping bag with his long-time friend, Pikachu. For six years the boy had been training on the top of Mt. Silver, the most remote area in the world. He abandoned everyone, his friends, his family, and even a good majority of his Pokemon. Today was April 1st, his birthday, and the day he left to start his training.

"Hey Pikachu?" He asked his electric rodent friend.

"Pika?" He responded, yawning.

"Do you miss anyone?" Pikachu sighed and nodded, curling up on Ash's lap.

"Me too," Ash began, shedding a tear, his voice wavering. "But we can't go back. Not after this long. Not after what she did!" He told his friend, clenching his fists. Pikachu didn't respond. He was sound asleep on Ash's lap.

 _Ash found himself on top of a building, leaning over the edge and holding onto a red scarf, a silhouette of a girl on the other side. "Ash, help me!" The figure screamed, but Ash just let go of the scarf, causing her to fall to the ground stories below._

Ash sprung up as his nightmare ended, looking around his surroundings. He heard the Delibird and Fearow squawking, and looked out the opening of his cave to see the sun in the sky. "That dream again." He said to himself. _But who was that girl?_ He didn't know who. This dream had happened before. Every night for the past couple of days, weeks, months, maybe years. On Mt. Silver, time was nonexistent, only day and night. Ash would wake up, eat some berries, then train with his Pokemon. Then, he'd take a break for lunch, then go back to training, only to do the same thing for dinner. After that, he'd usually put in a little more time for training, and then go to bed. Rinse and repeat. It did help with a lot.

Because of this, his Pokemon were much stronger now, especially Greninja. The Bond Phenomenon that the two shared had strengthened much more over the years.

Ash went about his daily routine. He went outside his cave, exposing him to the cold, windy elements of Mt. Silver. Luckily, he was wearing a coat that Leavanny made for him. She might not be strong, but she comes in handy quite often. After looking around for a bit, he spotted a large berry tree on a ledge that was a few hundred feet up.

"Greninja, scale that wall and use Cut on the tree!" He commanded as he threw a Pokeball. Out came the blue frog-like Pokemon, who had its tongue wrapped around its neck as a scarf. It swiftly leapt onto a ledge near them, and hopped between several rocks in order to reach its destination: the berry tree. Once there, a white blade emerged from its arm as it delivered a fierce slice, knocking the tree off the ledge and sending it tumbling down the mountain. Ash's frog-like Pokemon quickly dashed down the mountain and caught the small berry tree, bringing it back to its master.

"Thanks, Greninja." The raven-haired teen said to his Pokemon.

"Ninja!" It croaked as Ash returned it to its ball.  
Ash took the tree and stripped it of its berries, putting them in a silk sack that Leavanny had also made. After the berries were put away, he tossed the now useless bush aside and made his way back to his cave.

"Okay everyone, eat up!" He said cheerfully, tossing 5 Pokeballs into the air.

First was Sceptile, a very powerful member of Ash's team and the only Pokemon in the Sinnoh league to defeat Tobias' Darkrai. Always reliable since it was a Treecko in Hoenn, Ash took Sceptile with him as one of his closest friends and among his most powerful Pokemon.

Next was Snorlax, who yawned as he sat up. To his pleasant surprise, there was a small pile of berries in front of him, which he greedily gobbled up in seconds. Ash and Pikachu rolled their eyes in dismay at their friend. Snorlax was a very strong and reliable Pokemon much like Sceptile, but his lazy behavior made it much more difficult to train.

Infernape was happy to be out of his Pokeball and quickly grabbed a large amount of berries, shortly thereafter gobbling down a good number of them. Infernape was originally a Pokemon owned by Paul, Ash's rival in the Sinnoh region. Paul released Infernape, a Chimchar at the time, and Ash decided to let it come along with him. After evolving into Infernape right before Ash's 8th Sinnoh Gym battle, Infernape surpassed Staraptor and Gliscor in terms of power and was one of the sole reasons that Ash beat Paul in the Sinnoh League quarter-finals.

Swellow happily pecked away at the few berries in front of her. The Swallow Pokemon accompanied Ash throughout the majority of his travels through both Hoenn and the Kanto Battle Frontier. Swellow's streamlined shape allowed her to be a fast flier, and was the Pokemon Ash used to stay in touch with Professor Oak and his Pokemon training with specialists.

The final Pokemon to pop out of its Pokeball, Greninja, looked at the berries proudly before stealthily snatching one. Greninja was the most powerful Pokemon Ash obtained in Kalos, and became even stronger when their souls were in sync. Ash's Greninja was able to transform into Ash-Greninja, a form of Greninja that has the power of a Mega Evolution. During the tail end of Kalos, Ash and Greninja were able to stabilize their bond, but it was not strong enough to defeat Alain's Mega Charizard X.

"Okay you guys, eat up!" Ash told them. "I'm going to take a walk, Pikachu, you're in charge." Ash told his partner, who gave him a thumbs up in acknowledgement.

The lone trainer walked on a trail that led from his camp to higher up on the mountain, thinking back to the day he left Pallet Town.

 _Ash and Serena had just gotten back from Kalos after saving the world from Zygarde and Lysandre. Well, after_ Alain _saved the world from Zygarde and Lysandre. He was stuck floating in the air, trapped by some magical rings. He felt so useless, and on top of that, he lost to Alain in the finals of the Lumiose Conference. His mom told him that she had a surprise for him when he got home, so he was hoping that this surprise would cheer him up. Boy, was he wrong._

 _After finally getting home, Ash opened the door only to find all of his friends having a party. Everyone was there: Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Barry,_

" _Welcome home Ash!" His mom, Delia said, smothering him in a hug._

" _Mom, I can't breathe!" He managed to choke out before she released him from her grasp._

 _Ash looked around at everyone quizzically, then turning to Serena._

" _Hey Serena, do you know what's going on?" The honey-blonde girl shrugged._

" _Okay, Ash said, getting more worried. Mom, is this the surprise?" He asked._

 _The woman sighed, before clearing her voice. "Ash, this is a welcome home party, don't you get it?" She told him. He looked incredibly relieved._

" _Go on, enjoy it!" She told him, and he wandered off. Naturally, the first thing that he stopped for was the food. There were bowls of chips and fruit and all sorts of other stuff, and Ash just had to keep his mouth full. While over there, he saw his friend from Hoenn, May. She was shoving food in her mouth as well._

" _Oh, hey May!" Ash said to her, his mouth full of food. She waved at him before quickly swallowing down the chips in her mouth._

" _Hey Ash, how are you?" She asked him, genuinely curious._

 _He chuckled a bit before replying, looking rather down. "I'm okay, I guess," He told her. May tilted her head, rather confused. "I got to the finals of the Lumiose Conference, but lost to this super powerful trainer with a Charizard." He explained. May nodded. "So, what have you been up to?" He asked his long time friend._

" _Not too much, I won the Johto Grand Festival, and the Sinnoh Grand Festival, but lost to Drew in Hoenn, again." She told him, looking rather upset, but blushing nonetheless._

" _Well hey, that's great! I mean, you can't win 'em all!" Ash told her. The brunette coordinator frowned._

" _I guess not." She said to herself aloud, frowning a bit. She shook her head and looked at her friend._

" _Ash, have you ever thought about settling down?"_

 _Ash gave her a puzzled look. "You mean stop travelling?"_

 _May nodded._

 _The trainer chuckled. "Now why would I ever do that?" He asked her in a joking manner._

 _May stared at him, worried. "Ash, we've all accomplished our dreams. I've become Top Coordinator in two regions, Dawn has too, Brock has become a Pokemon Doctor, Misty is world-renown as a Water-type trainer, Iris finally beat Drayden and Cilan is now an S-Class connoisseur. The only one that's left, is you." She explained._

" _And I'll get there soon, don't worry May!" He told her, nudging his friend's shoulder._

" _Ash… Your dream is just too unrealistic. I mean, what even is a Pokemon Master? How do you know when you're there?"  
_ " _May, you achieved your dream, why can't I?" Ash said a bit louder, now slightly irritated._

" _Because, Ash, you're just not good enough!" May yelled back at him._

" _Okay. If that's how it is, then I give up." Ash told her, turning around and walking out the door._

" _Ash, wait!" She yelled. But it was too late. She had made her mistake and now he was gone._

 _Ash ran from his house, all the way to the Professor's Lab. After a short conversation with Professor Oak, Ash and Pikachu hopped on Charizard and flew off, never to be seen again._

"Pikapika!" A certain yellow Pokemon shouted, running over to his trainer. Smiling, he picked up his partner and started walking back to camp.

"Pikachu, I told you to watch the others!" Ash joked, knowing that his Pokemon were fully capable of looking after themselves.

"Pikachu, I can't stop thinking about what happened all those years ago…" Ash told his partner, who looked at him like he was crazy. "It's just that, I left because of one person who said one thing! I bet everyone misses me so bad!" He began. Thinking on it, he sighed. "You know, thinking about it, I bet they all just forgot about me." He said sadly.

Once finally back to camp, he saw a bird Pokemon flying towards him. It was brown, with a white face and a hairlike crest on its head. In its talons, he saw it carrying a letter. "Staraptor!" It cried.

Ash's face lit up with joy. "Staraptor, what are you doing here?" He asked his bird Pokemon from the Sinnoh region.

"Raptor, raptor!" It screeched, dropping the letter in Ash's hands. Curious, the isolated teen opened it. It read:

 _To Mr. Ash Ketchum of Pallet,_

 _Your ranking as runner up in the Lumiose conference has enabled you to participate in the Pokemon Master Challenge, a prestigious tournament to only come around every 10 years. Only the best of trainers are able to compete in this tournament, so it is considered quite an honor to be invited. Champions, Elite Four Members, Gym Leaders, and high ranking trainers from across the globe will be competing, making for a very difficult is a very hefty cash prize for the winner as well as officially being given the prestigious title of 'Pokemon Master'. We hope to see you there._

 _Signed, Mr. Goodshow._

At this point, Ash was grinning immensely. "Do you see this, Pikachu? This is exactly what we need! If we can win this, then we will officially be Pokemon Masters! Are you ready to put our 6 years of training to the test?" He asked his partner, who cheered in response.

"Alright then," Ash said in a serious tone, returning all of his Pokemon to their Pokeballs, bar Pikachu. "It's time to go to the Indigo Plateau!" Ash cheered, dashing down the mountain. _We'll show her…_ He thought.


End file.
